The untold stories

Wandering around

2011-03-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

कुछ समा हुआ ऐसे ही बैठे हुए,

कुछ अरसे गुज़र गए यह दीवारें देखते हुए,

दिल हुआ है ज़िन्दगी को नए सिरे से देखने का,

नयी ज़मीन पर बैठने का, नयी दीवारों को ताकने का.

तोह चल पड़ें एक और रस्ते पर, एक और ठिकाने की तालाश में,

मंजिल फिर नहीं है, सफ़र से फिर ना कोई उम्मीद,

दिल को बहलाना है, वही पुरानी ख्वाहिश.

Random peek in the past

2011-03-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Over the past three and a half years or so, I have traveled quite a bit. Only one country i.e. India but states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, besides my very own Delhi. Phew! That is quite a long list, and we are still to go into the cities and villages list. The best part is that while some of those escapades have been very touristy - visiting all the places one is 'supposed' to - a large part of them have taken me to remote villages, slums, and what not. And what that has meant is not-so-typical experiences, conversations and memories.

I like interacting with almost strangers. And by 'almost' I mean I do not start talking to the person standing next to me on a railway platform or a temple, but the next layer of people closer than them - the auto rickshaw or taxi walas, the waiters, the bar tenders, the project associates, etc etc. And I have formed a belief that the kind of insights taxi or auto drivers give about a place are incomparable. I remember talking to a taxi driver on my first visit to Mumbai. He had seen Mumbai age with years. To him the city had become like a museum, where millions come and go but whatever is inside hasn't changed for decades. The infrastructure development has just not coped up with the population increase. I hardly know Mumbai, but I feel that every time I am there. Don't take me wrong, I am not a Mumbai hater or something, in fact, I believe the Arabian Sea makes it the most special city in this country, gives it that soul. But the day time chaos is something that could have been better managed. Anyway, I love the vada pao and when I told this to another taxi driver, he laughingly said, 'Sahab pet bharne ke liye khana padega, toh utna achha nahi lagega', with the laugh receding with every word.

One thing that catches my eye every time I visit a new city is how each city, especially the smaller ones, have their own design of auto rickshaws. I have seen some giant 10 seaters to really petite, slim and trim ones, still having the same capacity. While the city defines its auto rickshaws' exterior structure, the interiors really bring out the personality of each of those auto rickshaws, or their drivers. So some have starking bright blue neon lights with silver danglers hanging down the side railings. Others would prefer posters of bare chested Salman Khan or the shades wearing Shahrukh Khan or more commonly, the not so fair Bipasha Basu. And it does not end there. I remember traveling in an auto rickshaw in Bhopal. We reached a traffic signal and stopped (an impossibility in states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana). Another auto rickshaw came, screeching with a glass shattering sound of Dhoom Dhoom (yes the John Abraham movie's OST). My auto rickshaw felt outdone and replied with 'Muqabla, muqabla..hoga!' and rocketed ahead at the sight of green light.

It is obviously impossible to capture (even remember) all my traveling experiences in one blog post. I think I would not even want to. It is about how thoughts are stored in one memory. I believe they are compartmentalized on the basis of some common characteristics. You think of a fair girl and your memory sorts all the records of fair girls that made lasting impressions at any point of time. You remember a girl in Rishikesh and that brings you to your other memories of that place - the rafts, the camps, the boats, the cliffs, and so much more. And those threads of thoughts are what make memories beautiful, bringing that smile to one's face. At least to me. So let's see how my day-to-day experiences of the future would remind me of some of the moments I have enjoyed in the past and then would like to share them here.

A New Day, A New Beginning

2011-03-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how time makes thoughts to oscillate between extremes.

I started this blog to pen down some of my real thoughts as an extra-curricular activity whenever I get bored of posting on stairway. But that quickly lost steam as I just did not find the motivation of doing so.

Now things have changed. I fail to muster up energy to post anything on stairway. While there is a plan of putting a fictional thing down someday, something that is more exciting, voluminous and useful, I don't know when will that happen. I have come to realize one thing - human thoughts evolve beautifully with time and experiences. From what I was a few years ago, the way I thought about life and the world, my outlook towards my innerself and beyond, I am a remarkably different person. And I just got this feeling that if this evolution is not recorded, I will miss out on the charm of looking back a few years down the line and reading through the way I think right now. I just read my older posts out here when I began this blog and I couldn't stop smiling. And also that I have accepted I don't possess much memory to be proud of. So the concluding idea - this blog will get a fresh new beginning while stairway will go into hibernation for sometime, and hence the oscillation.

The interesting thing to see will be that are these really oscillations or a mere U turn that will now take me to an altogether different journey, which I could have just missed going on.

I plan to record some of the interesting experiences that stumble upon me every now and then; also some of my thoughts on the issues I typically remain interested in; some of my travelogues from excursions that I normally value a lot; some of my rantings about world, people and even myself; and a lot more. I just hope I am regular enough to do this justice from hereon.

Baddi muddat ke baad ek raasta fir pakda hai,

Manzil ki na koi khabar hai na koi chahat, safar se hi mohabbat karne ka iraada hai.

Moving Back

2007-12-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

I had the intention of making this blog my 'real' diary, but frankly I have not been getting time to do it. Even when I do get that, I prefer taking care of my original world than this one. So till the time, I really figure out what I want to do with this one, it would be better for you to keep checking The Higher World, as it promises to be more interesting.

The Pole Theory

2007-10-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Negative multiplied by negative is positive but negative added to negative becomes more negative. So negative negative is not essentially positive.

Lazy cribbing

2007-10-22T10:34:00.001-07:00

Another lazy post before I fall off. Seriously speaking I don't even know why have I sat down here, as I am just too tired and that too for no reason. Perhaps the Monday syndrome. If you are wondering what that is, you don't really need to do that as there is nothing like that. I just coined that term right now. And if someone is working, he will know what I am talking about.

It was an average day with average load, average results and an average mood. Just like not everyone is born to excel, days have their share of fate too. So if some days score a distinction, there are days which need some grace marks to pass through. Now those marks can be OH radicals for some, sinful passionate hard work for some, good music for some, wasteful blogging for some and reading some wasteful blog for some. You must have stopped wondering what is wrong with this guy, otherwise you would have stopped coming here.

An interesting thing to note is that in the heights of capitalism, I am not charged a paisa (an endangered species) for advertising my webpage on gtalk and orkut. But I am sure days are near when status message won't be for free or there will be some company sponsoring the same. Money has been taking man for a long ride, and it has just started. I used to hear from people about a common debate over rich getting richer and poor getting poorer, never making much sense of it, especially with all the globalization happening, banks opening up to public, the giant corporate houses coming up to do so much around us. But my small stint in the rural development sector tell me, that its a bunch of bullshit. The debate will continue to exist. The fact is that it is easier for people who have money to get more money and the ones who really need it, who have the fire, who want to break the shackles, who have the fire to become something on their own, they are shooed away at all these big banks who run hours of advertisements about caring for people. I understand for them it does not make business sense to lend 40-50k of rupees, but everything can't be business, right? And even if it has to, no business starts with a million. I might not be making much sense to you, but I have seen that pain in the eyes of people, and I can't sleep easily. And if I can't, why should you?

I still get three to four calls everyday for getting a personal loan of 2 lakhs in 2 days. Don't you?

Of Chambal and the Stars

2007-10-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

'Aisa toh mere sath kabhi nahi hua!!' I slept for more than 14 hours, and those who know me would or should know that actually thats pretty rare to happen. Anyway, this fact hardly makes a difference to anyone's life. So how has life been at your end? At my end its been pretty hectic to say the least, the only difference is that this time its by choice than by anything else.

I have been doing interesting things. My work, as expected, landed me up in Jhansi. But that was just to sleep. The work was out of Jhansi and in places like Orchha, Niwari, Tarichhar, etc, which I am sure you have never heard of. For the first time in my life, I saw rural India with such proximity. And on top of that, I celebrated my birthday roaming around in draught hit areas, meeting weird people with acute memory problems, seeing half filled orange coloured sealed coca cola bottles, eating jumbo sized gulab jamuns which are strangely called rasgullas, drinking hot chaai in big khullads, yelling at a half psychotic painter, almost drinking the sinful Bagpiper (Don't worry, I did not do it!!), seeing the largest number of matkas at one place at one moment of time (only second to IIT i guess!), and what not.

If that wasn't enough, my next day saw me had one ride of my life on an open truck. I was on the back side of it, which was open. We were going through a dark jungle in Madhya Pradesh, better known as Chambal. Yes you have guessed it right its the famous land of all the Dakus in bollywood. And what I heard from localites is that the bollywood hasn't done good justice to the area as it is actually far more dangerous than portrayed. Dacoits can actually come out of nowhere anytime on that highway and you are not left with a long list of options. So that was how it was. We were crossing through that jungle and it was pitch dark with a strong breeze. Nothing happened except the fact that I kept listening to all the infamous incidents of past and the long list of Do's and Don'ts if something was to happen.

The most fascinating part of the whole thing was that I could see so many stars in the sky. You have to take my word, if you have always seen the night sky living in a city, you haven't seen anything. There are millions of stars visible with our eyes, which are never seen, because of the the excess of light in cities. That was some breathtaking experience, sitting in an open truck, everyone around me asleep, my iPod on, and the milky sky..brilliant!

About what useful I learnt from my experience, people are same everywhere, even the topics of discussion do not change, cricket rules there too. Most of the people have the basic necessities primarily because of the fact that electricity for them is not a basic need. So even if it is there for a couple of hours they are happy. But there are problems which they do not realize like the sanitation, the education levels and a lot more. The only thing which pinched me in the trip was that I could see that light in so many young kids, that fire to become something, that passion to dream..and I knew most of them won't be able to do it, just because they neither have someone to show the path nor the resources to walk on that path. It is that thing I am really going to work upon. Even if ten students are able to make big out of those places, the most fascinating stars on my blurred sky will make their first appearance.

A teaser worth ignoring..

2007-10-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

Although I have just 5 minutes with me before Miss Sleep takes me to bed, I want to pen something down as the urge to do it for sometime has just been too much. You can imagine that the urge has been that big that I can resist her seduction for a few more minutes. To put my last 4 days straight, its been an experience of a lifetime. I think I feel the same about every journey I endeavour upon. But this time there were some differences. One this journey was not born out of any random tripping adrenaline rush. Second it was an official trip, which are never meant to be fun anyway. Third, it was far less luxurious in the terms of facilities, mode of journey etc. compared to any of my previous travels. Finally, I was for the first time in my life actually visiting rural India. That makes it quite a list. How was it? Eye opening, Tiring and Loads and Loads of Fun!!
If by any chance you are interested in reading more about it, I plan to keyboard (not pen) it down very very soon. If you are not, I would do it anyway. So you are not really welcome, but if you still want to take the pain of visiting this page again, I won't shoo you away. I did not really invite you to read this too anyway (Check the title of this post before filing any complaints)
Till then, Keep Wandering!!

The Start of Something

2007-09-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

My life has either been designed interesting or I have been given the chance to make it interesting or it is just me who finds it interesting whereas it is just another life. In any of these options the Least Common Multiple is that I find it very interesting.
The events happening in my life for the past 5 0r 6 or perhaps 20 years or so have been no less than an epic which is worth a read in most of the Indian schools. Although the students might need tuitions for the same if it is introduced in one of the courses, I feel it an opportunity to create some additional jobs for those tutors, on the cost of such heaps of extra currency that scores of people have today.
Enough of kidding about my life and that too without giving any clue about what I am talking about. But I guess I just don't want to tell. The only purpose of penning something down at this age of my life is to make some bullet points somewhere so that if one day after twenty years I want to remember how I used to feel at the age of 23 (though this number is just about 2.5 weeks away from changing), I will have some clues to actually get back into the mentality I am at the moment.
How I feel at the moment? I feel different from the huge crowd. I feel to have stepped out of the rats running down the unknown road, momentarily if not permanently. I feel very mature. I feel very excited. I feel creative again (which is a big positive change). I feel ready again to learn. I feel inspired. I feel brilliant. I feel special. I feel life...so much of it, that I really want to write about it at least for sometime, as it is going to be so unique that I can't afford to trust my memory, which is in fact nothing to boast about.
My next posts will be a bit more elaborative and direct. So, if you are really interested, I won't mind sharing this very special journey I am about to begin.

Cuts like a knife!

2006-09-05T03:04:00.000-07:00

Ek din mar jayega kutte ki maut,
Ghar wale bolenge.......... mar gaya saala!

Listening

2006-08-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

One of those days when you are on the beach with people bustling with energy all around, birds chirping away, cries of vendors and hawkers everywhere, but you stand facing the sea, watching the waves, listening to the breeze, see the distant sun. You have so much to say, so much to speak, but you listen and let others do all the talking.

Cannot think of a title!

2006-08-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

Some of you must be waiting for this post or perhaps for 'a' post rather than 'this' one for ages. So here I am, ending your useless wait which must have been a product of absolute boredom and excess of net time on hand, which I am absolute scarce of. Anyway, after this usual abusing, which I keep throwing upon you in each and every post, till the time you come again and I start abusing you again ( oh I started again! ), I am here in the office, finally with a pc in front of me which is being shared by 3 people, but who have nothing more than orkut to do away with their time on internet, and since orkut is not accessible, at least I have not been able to do it after trying about 7-8 proxy sites, the pc is just at my mercy. After a grilling period of two weeks, finally we have some time off, due to some problems in the work schedule and we are left with a case study from Harvard Business Review. Somebody tell them, we were not able to go into IIMs, isn't Harvard too much?
The departments we are allotted were a secret to all of us until we got our hands on the ever so helpful world wide web, and all of our rabbits are now out of the hat(s).
About the corporate experience, its good, its new, its exciting, but it is sooooooooo school like ( the uniforms helping the cause).
Now that I am supposed to give a presentation on the case study and just 15 minutes to go, and everybody around me studying the case study for the past half an hour, its showtime and I better show my last minute teamwork.

Here I am..On the road again!

2006-07-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

So finally after millions of light years of wait ( I know its a unit of distance, that was meant to stress on the hugeness of it, Mr. Oversmart!), the day arrives or perhaps the night which is supposedly the last one for some time to come at home for me. Tomorrow, I embark on my journey which shall land me in a place which has been talked about for some months now and has more negative connotations to it than their opposite ones. But I am excited ( a state which has switched between the present one and a bit of disbelief of leaving this place after 22 long years of my life, about 5 times in the past 5 minutes). Obviously there are cons to attached to it also (Am i switching again?). Delhi has been a place which has got itself such a rocksolid place in my heart, that I am sure I can complete my mission of touching all the continents before 35 but it will still remain 'the' place of my life. There is an aroma, a flavor(the Americans ruling the world) to the place which just cannot be missed if you have been in Delhi a bit close to the length of time I have been here. The people, the eating out places, the pubs, the new found greenery, the fast tracked life, the purpose in life which everyone has here and yes, the Metro just...rock! And yes, I have to leave those special friends who are primarily the ones made in the past four years of my stay at iit for some time. But I am a strong believer of the power of communication and the low std call rates does not make the situation that grim. At the same time, phone calls are phone calls after all, and meeting someone in person is altogether different, so the situation is not too gay also. Family? I don't think one needs to say something on this regard. However, the stay at hostel has helped to ease out this problem as well. But now I cannot call home for any and every small thing which was out of reach to me. Lastly, the thing where there are no two faces of the coin (or its the Sholay wala coin), is Kumaon House. The days (the nights have been more eventful though) cannot just come back, and whatever I am in my life, I completely owe everything to this great place. Hats off not to the building, but to the spirit, the philosophy and the way of life this place imbibes in most of the inhabitants. Jai Kumaon.
Ok, before I get any more sentimental, I ll move to the positive things...Or i do not know, probably those things deserve a separate post just as this one does!

Of stupidism of Murphy, my love and a bit of truism

2006-07-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

As fate would have it, an IITian is born to show last minute acts of brilliance in tasks which are meant to take a few days if not less with a deadline over a month away. But this species of homo sapiens (a species inside a species, isn't it spectacular?), will never ever finish it on time, but would rather wait for the last minute to beckon on its face and challenge it to show its mettle. So as this philosophy is an example of truism, it has to be proved to everytime. So just to prove it right, Murphy and his laws also keep coming into play everytime. I know you must be wondering, what the hell has gone wrong this time. And though I hardly ever care about what you think and what you are not capable of, I will pardon you this time and tell, its nothing but my medical tests (HIV included). They have been there to be done for ages now, but I with my wisdom of such high order, waited for the last couple of days to get the job done. And now when I am supposed to come out with an act of magic, I am understanding the importance of not eating ( and not not drinking by the way ). So the task will have to wait for a day and now I can just wonder, how I am going to change my plans and alter the jampacked schedule which I had for the coming three days which are left with me before I knock on a place remoter than this but much better than all Saharanpurs and Mungers.
Anyway, one committement which I cannot meddle with is a play at LTG by an organization called Jamghat, on which you can have a look at http://jamghat.blogspot.com , so I hope that would be a good show. So the brighter part is I will get to meet my love after a long time. She is so cool and beautiful that I just cannot help but wonder how come I found her out so late in my life. I am in complete awe of her. Her name? Delhi Metro. I mean its the best thing that could have happened to the ever black transport of Delhi, and for a change you want to travel, rather than travelling on need and at times avoiding too because of the pathetic state of the public transport system. I am dying to spectate the time when the whole of Delhi will be covered by the Metro. Patience bears fruits and hope they are mangoes this time.
As I get ready for my first corporate stint, I have thought of changing myself a bit (though it requires a gigabyte of change). For a change, I will stop to be extravagant and for a change start imagining myself to be in US because then only I can wake up at 5 in the morning, as I am supposed to do in a few days. But my time at IAF reminds me of similar times, and I believe it was quite an enjoyable experience, but that can be told perhaps sometimes later.

Absolute crap of a post!

2006-07-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

With the confusion of dates and days, I find myself with one additional 'day' in my life, which compensates at least a bit to the days and dates that have been lost after those long nights with aged monks and some special directors. How do I plan to spend that extra day? I will probably push everything by a day and laze out a day more and I know you will be saying 'what a waste of a complete day!'. But I have said before, your opinion does not really matter, but you still continue to embarrass yourself by coming over here, I don't mind BRPs (that s the blog counterpart of TRPs).
Anyway, the tomorrow which had been awaited for decades now arrived, at least the mornings, as I shopped around 30-40% of my never ending list. I know that I have to wear uniforms, and don't dare to show that grin, I am quite looking forward to it, now don't show that pack of 32 which might be reduced to 10 if you continue that. The uniforms might bring the school flavour back and remind me of the lovely days I had, what with the waking up at 5 30 just adding to the experience. Ok, its not an experience one can look up to especially when one is in a habit of sleeping around that time, forget waking up, and then the school used to end at 1, this can go on as long as 8 in the night and then the 1.5 hrs of travelling. But hey, one is not paid in school, so I have one bullet point there. Can someone opt for making my food though?
Enough of cribbing about the job, lets talk something constructive. A movie heater (the one who is opposite to being a fan) to the core, i watched three movies simultaneously today, all for the third time at least, Before Sunrise, Lakshya and Parineeta. I know you will be wondering a person who sleeps through each and every movie can watch three at time, with at least two which can make anyone go asleep. The remote control which let me shuffle between them, kept me awake.
If you ask me what have I done in the two months or more of these vacations, its probably the same as what you have done all your life and continue doing, at least you did it in the last 5 minutes.

This was not expected of you.

2006-07-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

For those who insult me by visiting this page first and not my 'real' world, there is a new post waiting. So in future don't repeat this mistake.

Bits and Pieces about Indian Television

2006-07-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

So a long day in terms of emotions, a strange parameter you'll say to measure length, but its a fair one. I mean if you have gone through a roller coaster of emotions on a single day, at the end of it, you feel like living through a lifetime. Anyway, I don't care much if you agree or not on that, the day which started with some real bad news, soothened out but not without a very high peak. I am sorry you will be looking forward to hear both the start and the peak, but I am seriously not interested in writing on any of them, not because it is too personal, but simply because I don't want to be in the same mode again.
So just a week remains before I start my corporate bandwagon and as I told you earlier, there is a hell lot which is to be done, and you guessed it rightly, the much awaited tomorrow continues to elude me.
Interestingly, after being at home for a real long time (I don't remember the exact date to be precise), I have started getting comfort while watching something else than CNN IBN and NDTV. No I am neither talking of all the family sops, nor the greatest hindi news channels (though considerable time has been spent on them just making myself believe that I am awake and not dreaming to see an old man selling grapes as news , even my dreams are better). Its more of the Greatest Indian Laughter Champions, a show called Business Bazigar, and things like that. I think we all know about TGILC, but Business Baazigar I guess needs a bit of introduction. It is a nice reality show which I have been trying to follow for sometime now. Its on the theme of making entrepreneurs out of very normal common people. Powered by Zee Tv, it does not lack funding of any sort. The contestants though appeared real stupid to me in some of the earlier episodes, have become better after fine tuning, the most interesting part is the marriages they are supposed to handle these days, what with being asked for cowdungs for some ritual at the last instant. So its fun and you can add it to your must watch list if you have as much time in hand as I have these days.
Of all my loyalities that you have been getting to know with every post, Sherlock Holmes remains one of the topmost. I have read so much else and I love dozens of books but this masterpiece by Sir Doyle remains among the very few at top. I think there is something about detective stories and serials which keep you interested until the last moment unless its been really poorly done. The good ones on Indian Television would be Karamchand, Tehkikat, I don't remember in this category any more of them. The real poor would be CID, it was disgusting. And the best would be Byomkesh Bakshi, which was absolute class to me. Though inspired by Holmes a lot, Byomkesh Bakshi had an aroma and flavour which couldn't be matched. Remembering that great time of Indian television, if I am permitted to get away from detective serials, I clearly remember Malgudi Days and a serial called Stone Boy. I don't know if you remember Stone Boy or not, but that serial still has a stark impression on my mind. If you are just wondering why did I start this detective discussion, there is a new serial on the same lines, DON, whose quality can be adjudged by the fact that its still going on while I write this and I saw that its next on Star One.

Just another post.

2006-07-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

So the news is out (no, I m not talking of the Indian cricket team selection, there are more grave issues in life), Entry no. 2002287 that is me, shall not get the coveted degree of Bachelor of Technology in Industrial and Production Engineering in person at the Convocation. For any confusions whatsoever, this does not mean that I am not getting the degree at all, this basically means that the great receiver of this degree won't be able to do the honours on the 12th August 2006 himself. It is a moment of deep concern for the whole nation and after 5 minutes from now, the whole country will observe a silence of a couple of minutes, you may also join because anyway I don't expect you to be speaking while sitting on your PC. This calamity has occurred because of the great HR of the greatest company of the world thinks that there is so much to be done that even a day cannot be wasted. I did not have the courage to ask what were they doing for the past couple of months, when I have surpassed all records of meaningless timepass, the present being shared by you, which brings me to the conclusion that you are not any gram better, you also seem to be in one of the greatest companies of the world.
Anyway, I am not that sad either, because the whole exercise would have brought me down by some thousands of bucks, which is a lot or a person who is just starting earning, and for a person who enjoys a thousand bucks in a suave pub than anything else, though it is a different argument altogether that the place where I intend to go are devoid of any such avenues. No I am not one of those who keep nigging about their places and it is not going to be any Saharanpur. Baroda or Vadodara, to be politically correct, is my life's next destination ( in fact second for all practical purposes ). It suprises many just as it does to me that I have lived all my life in Delhi. Though I don't regret it, I am not the happiest one too. I am of the belief that one should visit as many places in the world as one can in his life. I have been late in takin off in that direction, but have covered most of Northern India in the past few months except Rajasthan, which I intend to go this year itself. So though I am 100% loyal to our Incredible India, I would still like to visit the US, Europe, Africa, Australia and Antartica too. Everyone close to me knows how big an optimist I am, and my intuition makes me believe that I ll at least touch each one of these, and yese Antartica too, before I turn 35. Anyone interested can contact :).
With 10 days to go, I continue with my everyday resolutions for tomorrow, to start shopping, start packing and God know what else. But I am sure the tomorrow which has eluded me for so long is coming tomorrow. Wish me luck.

HT and a bit more

2006-07-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

Of all the things I wake up with in the morning(if one might like to say them mornings at 11 30 am), a newspaper and that too HT is one thing which has remained constant for around 13-14 years of my life. It is not that I am one of the biggest loyalists of brands, its just that no other newspaper comes closer to make me comfortable. Though I'd prefer the centre page writups and editorials of Hindu anyday over HT, but somehow the south Indian feel of Hindu has not been able to shift my preferences. Times of India is too clumsy for me, a bit too voluminous too ( notice the too many 'too's in a sentence). The only thing that works in favour of TOI are the advertisements of it during intermissions at any cinema hall ( especially when you don't have the money to get some popcorn and cold drink for yourself and when everyone else around has moved out so you are left to watch the TOI advertisements). The Ads are just brilliantly done and I wonder how they keep coming up with such appealing ones everytime.
But that is diverging from the topic. I know lots of people just hate HT so I am not here to market it to you. The thing which pushed me to make this tribute to such a long bonding with HT was the centre page article on the latest drive of the Government of India to block certain blogs, which according the them are supporting terrorism. This does not make much sense to me. When we call ourselves the biggest democracy in the world, we should learn to respect it too. Democracy is not just about making a government out of a billion people. It is about respecting the opinion of each one of those one billion. If ninety nine percent of them think likewise, that should be given more respect, but that does not make them any bit more correct than the remaining one percent.
Blogs have been a revolution in terms of freedom of expression. Thousands (if not more) of people are being heard now against the very few who used to make it to the offices of all these newspapers a few years back. And can the Government of India just let the people decide themselves, who are given the right to elect it, what is right and what is wrong for them rather than enforcing itself on them?
Again I digressed, so if you are one of them who are still thinking that what has gone wrong with blogspot and how to read your favorite blogs, just log on to www.pkblogs.com and.... start reading HT (who knows they might have a referral scheme?).

Der aaye durusat aaye!

2006-07-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, after heaps and piles of requests to write something on the real part of me, I have given up and intend to use this space to write some of the observations I keep making everyday, which cannot always be made into stories, not because I want to open my life to anyone and everyone, but primarily to remind me of these incidents which I will start narrating from my next post, when I have grandchildren thanks to the acute shortage of memory I have. Do you realize that it was just one sentence which you just read? About why I chose Malgudi Nites as the blog adress, don't think about it much, it is simply because Malgudi Days is kept on the same table at the moment which hosts my comp, the same comp that has forced me to move from wordpress simply because it does not allow me to login there.
Actually there is no hiding the fact that I love people reading my musings, especially who are close to me. And if you are one of those whom I am talking about and if you keep coming here frequently, I shall keep posting.